Od ruchu fabrycznego do biurokratycznej neutralizacji Walka o rady robotnicze w Polsce w latach 1956–1958

• Authors: Paweł Szelegieniec
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

The aim of the article is to present the creation and the decline of workers’ councils asdemocratic bodies in post-Stalinism Poland. The period analyzed starts with their formationin 1956 and ends with the 1958 final neutralization of the councils by the ruling party-statebureaucracy of the Polish People’s Republic and the incorporation of workers’ councils intoa pseudo-democratic collective body called the “Working Class Self-government Convention”(Konferencja Samorządu Robotniczego – KSR). The new law on the “working class selfgovernment”successfully absorbed the workers’ councils under crisis, resulting from theobstacles posed by the bureaucratic system, into the economic system and factory regimecontrolled by the “nomenklatura”. In the beginning, workers’ councils represented the workingclass’ aspirations in establishing democratic control over the work process and assuring theimprovement of factory work conditions, however, thanks to the KSR they became a part of athree-part decision-making committee, whose aim was to manage the factory, thus replacingthe workers’ councils in their original role. In KSR ranks the only democratic organizationwere the workers’ councils and their representatives constituted a minority. Representativesof the ruling bureaucracy held the majority of votes allowing them to reject any decision in conflict with the ruling party’s arrangements, agreements, and social relationships. Thefinal result of the KSR existence was a decline of interest in workers’ councils exhibited byworkers and bringing their meaning down to that of a substitute of a trade union and not a ofa powerful ruling body in a workplace.Key words: workers’ councils, working class self-government convention, PZPR, workprocess, bureaucracy.

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie
• Journal: Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis. Studia Politologica
• Year: 2017
• Issue: 17

Dates

online

2017-08-05

Contributors

author

Paweł Szelegieniec